Implementing Common Core for students with disabilitieseSchool News A new website for students — and in particular, those with disabilities — is offering free "anytime, anyplace" resources, materials, and information to help schools ensure that their students meet the Common Core State Standards. Created by the Center for Technology Implementation, the website for students with disabilities, PowerUp What Works, links evidence-based practices, Universal Design for Learning and technology to guide teachers, school leaders, professional development facilitators and teacher educators in their professional learning.

Concerns raised over 'highly qualified' teachersDisability ScoopWhen Congress acted earlier this month to end the government shutdown, lawmakers also extended a provision that advocates contend has negative implications for students with disabilities. Tucked inside the legislation that brought the government back to life was a provision allowing teachers to be dubbed "highly qualified" even if they are still working on their certification through an alternative training program like Teach for America.

Cyberbullying of children greatly underestimated by parentsMedical News TodayCyberbullying has become a destructive force in many children's lives. After multiple suicides by children being cyberbullied, parents, more than ever, need to be aware of their children's online activity. A recent paper published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication found that parents underestimate how often their children engage in risky online behavior, like cyberbullying and viewing pornography.

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In the News

New strategy for more efficient learningPsychology Today In 1913, Ebbinghaus demonstrated that spacing learning out over time creates much more efficient learning than cramming a learning task into a single intense session. Now, a new discovery has been made for a specific spaced-learning strategy that so far is the best of all. In reviewing this new design, Kelley and Whatson point out experiments showing that this kind of spaced learning is optimal for information encoding and for activation of the genes needed to form long-term memory.

The state of the Common CoreEdutopia Millions of teachers and thousands of districts in 45 states are currently undergoing a sea change in the way that they teach and assess students. The new Common Core Standards for learning have been phased into states and districts since 2010, and the digitized Common Core Assessments are scheduled to deploy in states that have adopted them as early as the 2014-2015 school year.

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Parents of children with learning disabilities discuss resources, ease frustrationsDeseret NewsFor parents of students with learning disabilities, navigating the many evaluations, referrals and special designations used by schools and educators can sometimes make for a labyrinthine struggle. "By the time you learn all these things, it could be a year — a year of your child's education gone," parent Emily Rice said. "You can hear the frustration in all the parents' voices." Rice was among a group of parents who attended a Friday meeting of the Learning Disabilities Association of Utah. The meeting, which was held in the Jordan School District Auxiliary Building, brought together parents and educators to provide information on the resources available at the local level and the need to advocate for children with learning disabilities.

Schools, violence and mental healthEducation Week Public schools have the opportunity to impact more future citizens of the world than any other institution. Creating and maintaining emotional environments that teach, nurture and maintain healthy behaviors is an essential element of our responsibility to maintain physically safe environments in which our students can learn. Teaching and modeling civility and respect and teaching children learn how to express their emotions is paramount.

Learn to identify the symptoms of ADHDThe Columbia TribuneWe all have moments of distraction and disinterest. It can be very difficult for children, especially young children, to concentrate on tasks and maintain focus. But when does inattentiveness possibly indicate a more serious issue, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? ADHD is a common behavioral disorder that affects an estimated 10 percent of school-age children. Boys are approximately three times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD. Adults also might have ADHD. It is estimated that about 50 percent of adults diagnosed with the disorder had it as children.

ADHD: 7 behavior signs that may (or may not) add up to a diagnosisThe Washington TimesThe cases of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder continues to rise. However, it is not clear whether an increasing number of kids are developing symptoms, or if more physicians are diagnosing the condition. What makes assigning this diagnosis and the accuracy of incidence statistics difficult are the symptoms. Many of them are behaviors common to children who do not have the disorder. To give this diagnosis, a doctor must consider the number and frequency of ADHD symptoms a child demonstrates, and the effects these behaviors have on the child's functioning. Still, the line between ADHD and chronically-rambunctious is not always clear.

After school violence, traumatized teachers need helpCNNAmericans were shocked twice this week by more school violence — first, in Nevada, where a student shot and killed a teacher and wounded two students before taking his own life; then by the news that the body of a young teacher was found behind her school in Massachusetts. The images of traumatized parents and a campus surrounded by police tape shake us profoundly — our hearts break for the families of those who died. For them, this is the beginning of an unwanted journey.

Concerns raised over 'highly qualified' teachersDisability ScoopWhen Congress acted earlier this month to end the government shutdown, lawmakers also extended a provision that advocates contend has negative implications for students with disabilities.

Modern technology and new approaches help kids with dyslexiaDeseret NewsWhen Nathan Eberting finished fourth grade last spring, he received thrilling news. He was reading at grade level, something that seemed impossible a couple of years earlier. At the beginning of second grade, Nathan's reading skills were stuck at kindergarten level.

Navigating special education disputes in schoolsDistrict Administration MagazineGiven the increase in students diagnosed with disabilities and the costs involved in serving them, district leaders who want to provide the proper instruction and care, and avoid costly litigation, must stay abreast of the law.

Advocates: Common Core needs tailoring for gifted learnersEducation Week While many educators feel that the Common Core standards fall more in line with the pedagogy of gifted education than previous states' standards, the standards in and of themselves will not be sufficient to challenge a school's most advanced learners, gifted education advocates say. "Some students will be able to meet the standards faster than others, and the developers [of the Common Core] realized that one size does not fit all," said Jane Clarenbach, the director of public education for the National Association for Gifted Children in Washington.

Obama education speech stresses investments ahead of budget conferenceThe Huffington Post President Barack Obama spent Oct. 25 hanging out with students at Pathways in Technology Early College High School, before telling them they're "starting something across the country" in a speech in the Brooklyn school's auditorium. P-Tech, a new vocational school run in collaboration with IBM, goes two years beyond traditional high school and lets students graduate with an associate's degree. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, both Democrats, have praised the effort and called for the creation of more schools in its image.

School nurses' duties expand with changing timesUSA Today The Boy Scout motto of "be prepared" equally applies to today's school nurses, who not only deal with the typical bruises and tummy aches that have always been part of school life, but must now contend with a student population that is increasingly more medically fragile. As school systems face budget cuts, nurses must also adapt to a "migrant" lifestyle as they are assigned to several schools during a workweek.

Study: Children quick to judge peers with autismDisability Scoop Typically-developing kids often see their peers with autism as less friendly and less trustworthy, new research suggests, and they're making these assessments quickly based on appearance alone. Researchers found that typically-developing children formed their impressions of those with autism in as little as 30 seconds. The findings come from a study of 44 typically-developing 11-year-olds who viewed a series of short, silent videos featuring other children their age who were filmed while responding to simple questions from an interviewer. They were not told that some of the kids in the videos had autism.

Report: 10 percent of students miss too much schoolDistrict Administration Magazine An estimated one in 10 students in the United States are chronically absent from school, increasing the chances they will fall behind or drop out. Students who miss 18 or more days of school are considered "chronically absent," regardless of whether the absences are excused, unexcused, or for disciplinary reasons, says a new policy brief from Attendance Works, a national and state initiative founded in 2010 that is aimed at addressing chronic absence to improve student success.

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